monthly mingle: THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHT

[riverviewmod]

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: monthly mingle: the festival of light
when: The month of January.
where: Anywhere around the city.
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

festival of light

In the days leading up to January 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: The Festival of Light. This holiday is in celebration of the end of the Quarantine's short-lived winter and serves to welcome the new year. The traditions associated with The Festival of Light involve fireworks every weekend of the month, a days-long formal ball that with an open invitation to everyone in the city, and lighting magical candles and incense with loved ones and new friends alike.

a celebration of the end of winter and the new year

As the Capitol World stops blocking the path between the sun and its moon, the snow melts and the rains of early spring begin to fall and the residents of the Quarantine gather together to celebrate the new year. New beginnings are honored as the sky is lit with fireworks to banish the cold and dark of winter, and residents share the light and warmth of the new year with each other by sharing candles and incense with fellow residents. These traditions are steeped in magic, like many other things in Riverview, and have certain magical emotional effects on participants. Additionally, over the weekend of January 5th - 8th, the Government will be hosting a formal ball to welcome the New Year, which is open to all residents and offers food, drink, dancing, and other activities, as well as places to stay the night and relax or 'relax' with friends.

i. fireworks

One of the main traditions of the Festival of Light is to brighten the sky to welcome the new year, and as always, the Government of Riverview and various other city entities including businesses and various organizations and clubs, have gone all out to light up the sky. Each Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of the month of January, residents can gather outside on the beaches or park, or indoors at various observation lounges set up on city rooftops for the occasion, to watch elaborate, beautiful fireworks displays.

Outdoor observation is facilitated by use of rented forced-air umbrellas that make viewing the fireworks without having to squint into the rain or peer out from under a traditional umbrellas easy. Curl up with a friend or lover under an umbrella to watch the fireworks displays. Temporary indoor observation lounges have also been set up on most of the rooftops of buildings in the city, if the outdoors isn't your thing. The lounges can range from simple transparent-roofed spaces with rustic benches and hot cocoa to elaborate, fancy bars or restaurants with food service, music, and dancing. Some of the lounges may even have themes, whether they're 18+ adult or just quirky. Let your imagination run wild - if you can think of it, someone in the city's probably set one up.

ii. lighting up

Throughout the city, residents will find booths and special sections in their favorite stores set up with stands displaying magical incense and candles in a wide variety of colors. These are traditional trappings of the Festival of Light, the original and ancient tradition that's built up into the modern celebration as residents know it. Most prolific are the candles - ranging from tiny tea lights to large pillar candles, they are inscribed with the word 'glow' in a variety of different alien languages, including some that residents might recognize. The incense comes in small variety of dusky, earthen colors, each with a different scent and effect, all clearly labeled.

Candles are meant to be lit with one or more other people, and when this tradition is observed properly with a candle inscribed 'glow' - the wick lit by two or more people at the same time, and held together between them for a minimum of 30 seconds - every participant will feel and see certain magical effects. As the candle is held between the participants, they will start to see each other's skin glow, seemingly lit from inside, and as the glow increases, all participants will start to feel an emotional lightness. Stress and despair will slowly dissipate, giving the participants a temporary feeling of absolute contentment, warm and happy. The effects last from 5 minutes to a full 24 hours, depending on the number of people who participate and the length of time the candle is held between participants (more participants or longer timespans will increase the length of the effect), and effects are cumulative - lighting a large number of candles with different people will cause the effect to draw out for longer.

Incense is something usually lit in private, at home or a small gathering at a friend's house, and in recent years as the celebration has become a bit more modernized and commercialized, at the Glow Ball. There are a few varieties of incense with different psychological effects, all of which are pleasant and take strongest effect when the incense is lit with one or more other people, and enjoyed long enough for the whole stick to burn down. Orange and yellow incense will increase feelings of affection and openness, sienna red incense will do the same but also induce arousal; blue-grey incense will make it easier to share and ease grief and sadness, while grey-purple will lull participants into an easy sleep with pleasant dreams.

iii. glow ball

Every year during the Festival of Light, the Government of Riverview hosts a formal ball called the Glow Ball on the first weekend of the month - this year, it spans from nightfall on Friday January 5th until dawn on Monday January 8th. The ball is a relatively new custom, but has quickly skyrocketed to one of the most anticipated events of many residents' year. Similar to the castle-themed maze during Hygge, the Glow Ball is hosted inside a beautiful golden palace erected in the City Center that is much larger on the inside than it appears to be on the outside. While there is no specific theme to the ball, many residents take it as an opportunity to really glow in a wide variety of ways, all up to each person's imagination.

The palace is magically-augmented to be lavish, comfortable, and fully-stocked at all times, and features a banquet hall with ample and frequently-replenished food, a bar and lounge area for attendees to get a drink and sit for a while, a beautiful grand ballroom as well as several smaller ballrooms with different styles of music, a swimming pool with hot tubs, a garden, and smaller private vestibules that feature a pillow lounge, incense selection, and a small bedroom where residents can rest or enjoy each others' company in private.

NOTE: New characters are welcome to join in with the party, even if they haven't had time to prepare. Any new arrivals who come to the party in the clothing they arrived in will be whisked up by a fussy light golem or attendant who will fit them with a nice set of clothing for the evening so they can enjoy the festivities.

dinner and dancing

The banquet hall is ringed with tables that offer a buffet food catered to the time of day - breakfast in the morning, light food in the afternoon, lavish dinners in the evening, and desserts, coffee, tea, or hot chocolate, and snacks available all night. With ample seating at group tables, residents can share a meal with friends new and old. The bar and lounge has several large free bars staffed by glowing, ethereal light golems that never tire and never get an order wrong, and offers seating at tables and in cozy dimly-lit booths. Riverview's drinking age is 14 years old.

The grand ballroom is themed golden this year, with the walls tiled in gold and featuring a dance floor of white marble veined with gold. The grand ballroom has classical, traditional dance music playing for those who want a classy formal dance. There are four wing ballrooms that feature different genres of music for residents who enjoy alternate types of dancing, with the genres consistently rotating - whether you like punk, country, rock, pop, or any other type of music from any planet or country, it's likely to be playing in a wing ballroom at some point. Schedules are posted outside of each door and there are four genres per wing ballroom per day.

swimming and gardens

Another feature of the Glow Ball is the beautiful swimming pool - warm enough to be comfortable but cool enough to be refreshing, the outdoor pool has both flower petals and the season's glow candles floating on it, a champagne service offered by light golems, and tables to sit and enjoy a drink and conversation while drying off. There are also small hot tubs ringing the swimming pool where residents can soak away the aches and pains of the day. The pool offers change rooms where speaking a magical incantation (helpfully posted on the door) will change the occupant's formal clothing into an equivalent swimsuit, and will change it back (and dry the occupant) after the dip has been taken.

The gardens are also available for any attendees who want to get a bit of fresh air. With beautiful flower-lined winding paths under a perpetually starry sky and ample candles hanging from the trees and edging the paths for visibility, the gardens are a scenic and relaxing place to take some time away from the light and get some air.

privacy

For residents who want a little private time or want to spend more than just an evening at the ball, there are small private vestibules scattered throughout the palace. Featuring a lounge area with pillows and lap tables for eating, and a comfortable queen-size bed, each room also has a vanity whose drawers hold both suitable pajamas for sleeping in and (in 18+ rooms only) supplies for intimacy ranging from massage oils to packaged toys. And most importantly, each room is fully stocked with a selection of the season's incenses for use in private.

v. roommates or wildcard

Feel free to use this prompt to meet new roommates, for the purpose of getting to know each other, or hit up the mod-posted prompt to create a Communal Housing floor mingle. Or, if you have an idea for a prompt that isn't in this list, set during the Festival of Light, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit: image i: Jakub Grygier; image ii: Shutterstock; image iii & iv: credit unknown

navigation

Comments

Tony Stark (MCU) | OTA

[buildsomething]

i. glow ball

[A fancy party wouldn't have been Tony's first choice, but now that he's here he can't help enjoying things. Wrapped up in a nice suit with even a pair of tinted glasses to match, he feels a little like a version of himself he hasn't seen in a while. For a change, he doesn't even mind much. Though that might be because he's actively making an attempt to stop feeling so goddamn sorry for himself. He can be Tony Stark for a bit, and maybe even have a good time with it.

So he wanders in and out of ballrooms, dancing as the mood strikes him, or just making the kind of easy conversation he can do in his sleep. He stops by for food every now and then, and though it may not seem like it, he is actually watching how much he drinks. One glass can look like a lot more if you hold it right. But for the most part he's just making the effort to be charming and sociable . It's a new year, he might as well try.]

ii. gardens

[Even an inveterate gladhander needs a break once and a while. He might be giving the pool as wide a berth as possible, but the gardens make for a nice rest. He's made himself comfortable on a bench, suit jacket abandoned to the side and his shirtsleeves rolled up, a champagne glass hanging loosely from his fingers.

The flowers are nice and all but Tony's not really looking at anything in particular so much as just letting his mind wander, though he'll smile almost reflexively at anyone who passes his way. Aside from that and the occasional unconscious twitch whenever a particularly loud firework goes off, Tony doesn't seem to mind being oddly still. At least for a moment.]

iii. wildcard

[Candles and incense probably for cr only, but I'm open to most things! Feel free or poke me at talkincodes to plan something specific.]

ii.

[mannerism]

[ she joins him only a moment or two of watching him. peggy doesn't wear her concern for him on her sleeve. tony stark, she has learned, knows how to infer her strictness and their drinking sessions just fine without her having to turn sentimental about it.

she sits down just as another firework blasts through the sky, her hand finds his arm. ]

I hope you don't mind me burrowing it.

[ his jacket, that is. she'll drape it over her shoulders. ]

[buildsomething]

Go for it. Looks good on you.

[The smile he flashes her is faint but genuine. He's always pleased to see her, really, and now is no exception.]

I would have thought you'd be in there dancing.

[mannerism]

I should say the same thing about you.

[ they are both of them not quite social at the moment, it would seem. peggy's not the sort to outright ask what's wrong, though it's clear something is. she lets tony have a few moments of comfortable silence before she laces her arm through his. ]

come on. let us walk a bit.

[buildsomething]

[He gives her a look, but allows himself to be tugged along without putting up a fight. Tony learned early not to get in Peggy Carter's way if she wanted something, but the thought is tinged with fondness. This is a woman who put up with Howard for years, after all.]

Sure. Where're we going?

[It's more absent curiosity than an actual question. The half-full champagne glass gets abandoned on the bench as he folds their arms together comfortably.]

w-wildcard

[wingedman]

[Sam drags Tony off to one of the private lounges at one point, maybe after a dance, maybe not. He's checked the rooms out, and it seems like a good place to just chill for a bit. Sure, the gardens are as well, but this comes with the bonus of being in private, should they decide to opt for hanky panky.

And, in fact, Sam's already shedding his jacket and rolling his sleeves up as he settles down on the bed.]

You try any of the incense yet?

[buildsomething]

Can't say I have.

[Tony cocks an eyebrow at him as he skims out of his own jacket and tosses it over one of the bedposts.]

I had enough experiences with mood-altering substances in the eighties.

[Unspoken is the fact that he doesn't like anything that might mess with his control that much anymore, but he's relatively sure Sam knows him well enough for that by now. And is one of the few people he might trust with it anyway.]

Why, you feeling the need to party?

[wingedman]

Now I'm a little worried about how young you were when you started trying drugs.

[Sam just makes a face. His own experiences with drugs are different than Tony's - the druggies he'd encountered in his youth were poor addicts desperate to get enough cash to score their next hit, or else the dealers who haunted the streets of Harlem, and not rich white boys spending their trust funds on designer drugs for parties. The comment is enough to make him rethink the incense - but this is magic, or so he thinks, and not chemicals. From what he's seen in Riverview so far, the government wouldn't sanction anything that would foster chemical dependency, anything that would kill people.

...he hopes.]

Thinking about it.

[His fingers linger over the red incense for a moment.]

[buildsomething]

I started everything young.

[It's an offhand comment, one Tony clearly isn't thinking too much about. He's much more concerned with watching Sam as he drops onto the other side of the bed and leans back against the headboard, amusement playing over his mouth as he absently begins rolling up his sleeves.]

You think you need help there?

[He nods towards the incense stick under Sam's hand, smile growing into a smirk.]

ii

[paged]

[ Karen is rounding a corner in said gardens, winding down from her own night, heels still hooked on two fingers as she keeps to cool, smooth path. She looks up in time to see Tony still as the sky lights up from another colorful display from above.

Being the way she is, she feels the need to ask, ]

Hey, are you okay?

[buildsomething]

[It takes a moment or so for Tony to surface out of his own thoughts, but he blinks at suddenly finding a beautiful blond standing in front of him. The smile that flashes across his face is purely unconscious.]

Sure. Why wouldn't I be?

[paged]

[ She shrugs, ]

You seemed kinda... tense?

[ She doesn't mean to stare at him but he looks really familiar. ]

[buildsomething]

I usually do.

[But he recognizes that hey don't I know you look, it's a thing he get's a whole lot of back home. Usually, he ignores it.

Here, his smile goes a little wry and he holds a hand out to her.]

Tony Stark.

ii

[worldsaway]

[Thor is dressed just as well for the occasion. Every so often, getting dolled up for a festival will remind him of the night they all shared in Stark Tower, before everything went to hell. He can still appreciate the better part of the memories, if he tries very hard to forget the last hour or so of the evening.

He catches sight of Tony from behind on his bench. He knows it's him, having seen him mingling a little while before. Thor wanders up behind him, clearing his throat to address himself before he rests his hands on Tony's shoulders.]

I can't tell if you're very relaxed or very good at pretending you're relaxed. [Thor applies some pressure to his shoulders, leaning down so they're mouth to ear.]

Tense.

[buildsomething]

[He twitches a little at the suddenness of it, but the tension goes back out of him quickly enough -- considering the amount of time they've had in close quarters, Thor is one of the people he largely trusts with his personal space. He does turn enough to shoot him a dry look out of the corners of his eyes, though.]

Who's tense? I'm in a perfectly good mood, thanks.

[worldsaway]

Are you questioning my integrity as a masseuse? [Thor gives Tony's shoulders a squeeze that probably feels more like a pinch. He pulls away, moving to sit beside him, folding his arms over his knees.]

What are you so happy about, then?

[buildsomething]

I'm questioning your ability not to break something by accident.

[Not that he actually thinks that's true, Tony's well aware that Thor isn't as careless as he likes to pretend sometimes. But it's nice to be able to poke at someone you know won't get offended sometimes.]

A man can't just be in a good mood?

wildcard lmk if you want me to change anything

[inebriety]

[Ever since he discovered what the candles could do, he's been running around chasing after people to participate with. He's avoided participating in large groups which means the effects don't last very long so much like an addict chasing their next hit, Tony's desperate to keep it from wearing off.

By the time he reaches his counterpart he's trembling. It's starting to wear off again and he can feel the crushing weight of his depression making itself known.]

Hi. Hold this please.

[A candle is shoved into his hands while he tries to get the lighter working.]

perfect

[buildsomething]

[Something is shoved into his hands so quickly that he nearly fumbles it, but all Tony has is a mildly baffled look for his other self.]

...hi?

[That accomplished, he finally glances down at what he's been so kindly gifted with. And...ah.]

Why darling, I'm touched.

[inebriety]

[There's a quiet 'aha' as he gets the candle lit.]

I figured you could use it too.

[He starts counting the seconds in his head until it starts working. He's tapping his foot impatiently although the rest of his body language and he's stiffer than he normally is.]

I'd have brought the incense as well, but that's almost like saying I'm not attractive enough.

[His body language doesn't match his words which was unusual considering they had learned to act a certain way in front of people from a very young age.]

[buildsomething]

I should probably be offended by that.

[He doesn't sound particularly offended. More curious as he watches the other Stark twitch his way through the motions. Which hey, he hasn't tried these things before, of course he's curious. But his attention is a lot more on the other man than the candle.]

Or that you need a nap, I guess.

[They both do, probably. But they've been down that road before.]

i

[ragnarsson]

[Ever wonder what a Viking would look like dressed up in a formal suit after someone made him do his hair? Well, now Tony does. Ivar looks extremely uncomfortable and like he would very much like to be back in his armor, thank you very much. Still, he'll take in some food and consciously avoid looking towards the ballroom.

He wheels up towards Tony and clinks a champagne glass against his. The genius might be able to appreciate what Ivar did to his wheelchair this evening.]

Skoal. [Then he downs the entire glass. Perhaps someone should inform Ivar that's not water? No? Okay.]

[buildsomething]

Salute.

[It's returned a little dryly, but Tony takes his drink all the same. Not all of it, he's not actually looking to get into drinking contests with vikings at the moment, but a healthy enough amount.]

I see you took the theme rather literally. [He does appreciate it, honestly. You can't go wrong with LEDs.] You should keep it that way. It's a good look.

[ragnarsson]

I figured that if I'm stuck in this thing, I might as well make it look interesting.

[It's not like Ivar it's magically going to come to terms with not being able to walk after sixteen years of being reminded of it, but he can at least make it stand out.]

Really, this took more time than everything else in getting ready.

[He had practically been forced into the suit at gunpoint.]

[buildsomething]

You should keep it like that. You could be high visibility for when you go wandering around at night.

[It's probably a little too much teasing for someone Tony doesn't know particularly well, but he's in a good mood so he's running with it. If it gets him punched, he can deal.]

Maybe some spinning rims, running lights. Really jazz it up.